FROM PAIN TO ART – THE STORY OF ANTON
SCULPTOR. MIME ARTIST. THE VOICE OF THE DEAFBLIND.
Anton was born healthy. At just eighteen months old, he became deafblind due to tick-borne meningitis. For years, he warned that deafblind people in Slovenia lacked rights and protections that existed elsewhere. “The state knew we existed, but it hid us,” he says.
Everything started to change more than twenty years ago when Simona Gerenčer visited him and told him about her plan to establish The Deafblind Association of Slovenia DLAN. That was when he felt that something big was happening. Later, he also became the president of The Deafblind Association of Slovenia DLAN (2012–2017).
“Before that, people with deafblindness were lost, isolated, and afraid. I too suffered greatly, I was often humiliated and discriminated against. They even wanted to place deafblind people in nursing homes. I couldn’t understand that.”
Today, under the artistic name DlanTon, Anton creates as a sculptor and mime artist. He doesn’t hide his pain – he transforms it into art. He wants the world to understand deafblindness, to respect deafblind people, and to break down stereotypes.
“This is my home. My mission is to help people with deafblindness and to show them the way,” he says with strength and pride.
